| Collection | Winstanley Oral History Collection |
| Description | Mrs. D.S. Clarke, born 1894, interviewed in Canterbury. His father was a balloon manufacturer and he came from a family of four girls and one boy in the area of Highbury London.
Dorothy Spencer Clarke [DSC] born Highbury, London, 1894. Description of mother, Mary [DS], and father, Percival Spencer [PS], worked in family aeronaut business. [2:10] Description of DSC childhood. Comments on family life when moving to Aberdeen Park. Mentions maid and step girl. [8:50] Story about how PS installed private telephone line into family home. Description of PS office in the home. [12:02] Description of elder sister and DSC attending Clabria College, Highbury Fields, comments on being taught reading, writing and spelling. Description of DSC and elder sister moving on to Highbury Hill Girls School. Mentions not being taught at home but reading weekly magazines. Remarks on knowing more than other girls at similar age. [17:47] Comments on playing Hockey at Highbury Hill Girls School. Remarks that pupils were trained to become teachers. Story of girls at DSC college becoming teachers, comments that PS did not want DSC or sister to do this. Short description of DSC spending three months in France to coach girl in English. [21:20] Comments on school being taken over by London County Council, remarks that grants meant bigger classes. Mentions good standard of education. [23:28] Remarks that grandmother taught DSC and sisters to cook, comments on having to look after younger siblings after mothers' death. Anecdote on PS taking son, Charles [CS], to fly in balloon for first time. [24:38] Comments on PS death in 1913 and CS involvement in ballooning and in the First World War. Remarks on clothing being handmade from silk parachutes. Description of how parachutes were made at family company. [30:13] Description of family meals and household rules, comments on children being seen not heard and having a big family. [33:22] Anecdote about DSC possibly returning to France, but Grandmother interrogated by worker from the Public Trustee office, DSC workplace. [35:18] Comments on not seeing MS much, and homemade remedies for illness. Story about trying to prevent DSC getting whooping cough. Description of nursemaid, cook and DSC grandmother looking after her and siblings. Mentions not knowing about sex when younger. Description of meeting husband at work, having a daughter and getting a car in 1926. [40:51] Comments on PS not having other transport than balloons, remarks that horse and cart moved balloons and family relied on railway. Story about PS racing cyclists in a balloon. [42:37] Comments on life being centered on home and work rather than friends. Remarks on being secretary of hockey club and learning to swim when younger. [43:39] Comments on knowing of the suffragettes as a teenager, but not being involved. Description of PS not being political. Mentions helping at Y.M.C.A canteen cash desk during the First World War. [45:20] Description of birthday parties in July and November for family members. [47:03] Remarks on fetes and galas ballooning company took part in, remarks on PS and brothers having to send DSC grandmother telegram upon landing. Story about PS crashing in Sondar Bond, Calcutta, and being presumed dead. Anecdote on DSC and siblings flying in balloon at the Crystal Palace. Story about DSC Uncle Arthur breaking leg in parachuting accident in Wales. [54: 56] Description of workers at ballooning company. Remarks on seeing balloons from family garden. Comments on PS not insuring his life but insuring third party. [57: 54] Comments on not seeing PS a lot, description of going fishing and taking walks in the country with him. Recalls PS taking children to Gilbert and Sullivan shows and reading Ingoldsby Legends on Sundays. [1:02:05] Description of playing whist, doing needlework and playing piano in the winter or during rain. Remarks on missing grandmother more than parents when she died. [1:04:05] Comments on Government taking over ballooning company during First World War. [1:04:57] Description of MS being part of a ladies club called ‘at homes’ on Tuesdays. Remarks that ladies had to be gone from house when PS came in for tea. Comments on MS threatening to tell PS if DSC and siblings misbehaved, remembers MS not being angry often. Short description MS keeping a cane in nursery. Remarks on being brought up to respect elders. [1:10:04] Story about being DSC and sibling being invited to Sunday school by Vicars wife and going every week. Remarks MS and PS never went to church. Comments on teaching at Sunday school later in life. [1:14:43] Remarks on not wanting to alter anything in life. Description of losing first husband, travelling for 5 years, returning and remarrying. [1:16:40] Recording ends. |